The present invention relates generally to medicine cabinets and, more specifically, to interior shelving arrangements for medicine cabinets.
Medicine cabinets of the type used in bathrooms of residential dwellings for storing articles such as medicines and personal hygiene products typically have a rectangular, pan-shaped housing with a hinged door. The door may have a mirror, and the cabinet may be mounted in a recessed manner in the bathroom wall. The interior of the housing typically has multiple removable shelves. Each shelf extends across the width of the housing with the ends of the shelf retained in horizontal slots on the cabinet side walls. The slots are vertically spaced to provide multiple mounting positions for the shelves.
It is desirable for multiple members of a household to share the use of a medicine cabinet. Yet conventional medicine cabinets may present a danger to children and those with mental or visual impairments who require access to relatively innocuous articles, such as toothpaste tubes, mouthwash bottles and first aid supplies, because potentially harmful articles, such as drugs, iodine and razor blades, may also be stored in the cabinet. It would be desirable to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing certain potentially harmful articles while allowing them to access other articles stored in the cabinet. These problems and deficiencies are clearly felt in the art and are solved by the present invention in the manner described below.